Divine Intervention
by Ryoku Arcanian
Summary: Naruto's life had always sucked, that much he knew. But when a stranger appears and helps Naruto, his life is changed forever, in more ways than one. Now, with this stranger training him, Naruto may be more prepared for the trials that lie ahead. But he will learn that with great power comes great responsibility, and sometimes with an even greater price...


Divine Intervention

A/N: Yo people! Ryoku Arcanian here with my first story! The idea for this story has been in my head for a while now, but I wanted to find a good set of characters to work with before I wrote it. As it turned out, the characters in Naruto is the right set of characters for this story, so there you go. I'm not going to keep you guys waiting on the first chapter, so here you go!

* * *

Divine Intervention Chapter 1: Meeting With A God

At the moment our story starts, Naruto was running for his life.

Naruto heard the sounds of heavy feet behind him, and that spurred him on to move even faster, even though he was already moving faster than a normal five year old should be able to. He had a lot of practice in running from situations like these.

What had happened was Naruto had decided to prank a couple of men by switching their drinks with pepper juice while they weren't looking. While the looks on their faces had been priceless when they drank the stuff, they had immediately turned to see who had done it, and, upon seeing Naruto, gave chase.

'Crap crap crap!' Naruto thought, panicking upon hearing the footsteps getting closer, 'Why the hell did they have to take it so badly?!' In all honesty, what Naruto had done had been unwarranted, sure, but these men were out for blood.

'Why do they always do this stuff to me?!' Naruto thought, 'What did I do?!'

Naruto turned a corner only to see that he was at a dead end. He tried to scale the wall, but even his tiny, child-sized feet couldn't find any purchase on the walls.

With no choice but to try to fight back, Naruto slowly turned to face his two attackers, who had turned the corner and were now grinning maliciously at Naruto. Seeing that they had him right where they wanted him, one of them pulled out a knife and started forward.

"We're gonna kill ya, ya fuckin' demon brat!" The one with the knife shouted drunkenly, "You don' deserve to live after what ya did!" The drunk proceeded to charge, stumbling with every few steps but coming towards Naruto at a decent pace nonetheless.

Naruto froze in fear as the knife came closer and closer to him. When the man started to get close, Naruto closed his eyes. He waited for the fatal blow to come.

But it never did.

After a few seconds, Naruto opened his eyes, and proceeded to do a wonderful impression of a fish out of water, amazed and surprised at what he saw.

Standing in front of him was a boy who, judging from his height, was about 15 years old. However, his choice of clothing and hairstyle was a bit…strange, to say the least. His black hair stuck out of the back of his head, first in a small cone, then inverting and becoming much larger as it went out, until it was almost eight inches across. He was wearing a black shirt, black pants, black boots, and black gloves all trimmed in white, covered with red symbols that connected to white gems, one on each of his shoulders, his knees, his boots, his gloves, and his stomach. He also wore a golden cape with two red and two black gems, the different colors alternating and across from each other, on each of the corners of the cape.

And he was also holding the arm of the man with the knife, preventing it from reaching Naruto.

Millions of questions flashed through Naruto's brain, but the one that he ended up asking was, "W-Who the hell are you?!" It came out a little more aggressive than he intended it to, but that wasn't that surprising judging from what had been happening before the strange boy had shown up.

The boy turned to look at Naruto, and Naruto was surprised to see that he was smiling. "Name's Ryoku." The boy said, "And I'll tell you more after I whoop these assholes into oblivion, okay?"

Naruto could only nod numbly. What happened next, however, was, in Naruto's opinion, the most amazing thing that he had ever seen in his short life, including instant miso ramen.

The man with the knife, apparently getting fed up with the boy, attempted to jerk out of Ryoku's grip. However, Ryoku just let go of the man's wrist, causing him to fall backwards from the extra force he had used. The man then charged at Ryoku with the knife, but Ryoku just snorted and grabbed the knife with two fingers. In a quick, fluid motion, he twisted them, and the knife broke in two. The man's surprise was cut short as Ryoku snap kicked him, sending him into a wall. Naruto swore he heard numerous cracking noises.

Ryoku turned to the other man, who looked like he had just soiled himself. " Do you really want to have a go at me?" Ryoku asked, smirking slightly.

The man's eyes rolled up into his head and he dropped like a sack of potatoes.

"Well, that solved that problem." Ryoku remarked, turning to Naruto. "Now, I need to get you the hell out of here."

"W-Why?" Naruto asked, confused.

Just then, however, they heard a deafening roar resounding around Konoha.

"That's why." Ryoku said, walking towards Naruto and picking him up. "And stop squirming," Ryoku said to the heavily wriggling Naruto, "I don't want to drop you in Intraspace." Naruto didn't know what that was, but he decided to stop squirming anyway, because whatever Intraspace was, being dropped in it didn't sound good.

Ryoku took a deep breath, and suddenly Naruto felt like he couldn't breathe, and all Naruto could see was a mix of black and white…

Then just as suddenly as it began, it stopped. After the dizziness had faded, Naruto saw that they were in the forest surrounding Konoha.

"H-How the hell did we get here so fast?!" Naruto yelled. Ryoku instantly dropped him.

"What the hell was that for?!" Naruto yelled, standing up and rubbing his now bruised backside.

"You have quite the mouth on you, don't you?" Ryoku observed, "Well, allow me to answer your questions while we have some time. I'll start with the two you just asked me. The reason why we got here so fast was because I used a type of teleporting technique that sends the user through something called Intraspace, which is the space in between the dimensions. In doing so, as long as you know just what the hell you're doing, you can end up exactly where you want to in less than a second, no matter the distance.

"However, there is a drawback." Ryoku continued, "The farther you travel using this technique, the more energy it costs. As for why I dropped you, that, my dear friend, is my way of telling you to shut the hell up. Which, in this case, failed miserably."

"Your methods are screwed up." Naruto grumbled, glaring at Ryoku.

Ryoku just grinned. "I get that a lot. Now, that can't be all of your questions. Certainly a hyperactive kid like you has all kinds of questions for a great and powerful person like me?" Ryoku puffed out his chest and got into the conqueror position on a tree trunk, combined with the thinker position.

Naruto sweatdropped. "O-kaaayyy. Well, I want to know just who the hell you are, for one."

Naruto knew he had made a grievous mistake when he saw the devilish smile that lit up Ryoku's face. "Why, I am glad you asked." Ryoku said, grinning. Clacking music started to play from…somewhere, and Ryoku started to do a weird dance. "I am the Almighty Lord of Shadows and Medians, the Master of Magic, the Legendary Swordmaster, the Legendary Demon-Slayer, and a member of the Divine Elder Trio, RYOKU ARCANIAN!" Ryoku stopped in a pose that had two fingers on his left hand opened over his left eye, and two fingers on his right hand in the position over his right side.

Naruto sweatdropped again. 'What's up with this guy?!' He thought, bewildered, 'Is he insane or something?'

"To answer your question, Naruto," Ryoku said out of nowhere, "I am on a permanent sugar high from the time when I tried to eat all of the chocolate in the chocolate factory up in the Heavens, and succeeded. As for the insane part…maybe a little, but nowhere near the level of one of my teammates, Dyn."

Naruto was wondering what he was talking about, but he then realized that he had thought the questions that those answers went to. But Ryoku couldn't know that, unless…

"Ahh, I see you figured out that I can read minds." Ryoku nodded, smiling. At least, he was smiling until his face met Naruto's fist. He then started busting out laughing at the blonde's attempt to hurt him. Said blonde was now cradling his fist, looking pissed.

"I would advise you to never try that again." Ryoku said, looking at Naruto's bruised hand.

"What the hell is your face made of, metal?!" Naruto hissed, trying to regain feeling in his hand.

Ryoku sighed. "Let me see your hand." Ryoku said, rolling his eyes.

Naruto was a bit hesitant, but fate played its hand once again. In other words, Naruto didn't trust Ryoku with his hand, but Ryoku grabbed it anyways.

"Now, I'm nowhere near as good at this as Aryllia, so this may sting a little, got it?" Ryoku said, looking at Naruto.

Naruto nodded once and braced himself for whatever was about to happen. What did happen, however, was once again one of the cool things that Naruto was starting to grudgingly group in with Ryoku.

Ryoku covered Naruto's hands with his own, and a soft green glow emanated from within them. Naruto felt a pleasant warm feeling in his hand, and when Ryoku stopped doing whatever he was doing, Naruto's hand felt like he hadn't just tried to punch someone who could snap a knife in two with just two fingers.

"Now, I'm guessing you have more questions," Ryoku said, "But they'll have to wait because-"

He was cut off by a massive roar.

"-the demon is getting closer." Ryoku finished. He then picked Naruto up. "Well, I had hoped that we could avoid a fight, but sometimes things don't work out the way you plan them to." He said, sighing, "Well, if I'm gonna have to fight a demon, I might as well pick the battlefield."

"W-Wait, did you say demon?!" Naruto practically shouted.

Ryoku looked at Naruto straight in the eyes, and for the first time in the short amount of time that he had knew him, Naruto saw that Ryoku was capable of being serious. "Yes, Naruto, I did." Ryoku said, and then the two teleported away.

* * *

When the dizziness faded, Naruto saw that they were in a huge clearing bathed in moonlight, surrounded on all sides by a line of trees. The scene would have been beautiful had Naruto not been filled with fear about the coming demon. Before he could dwell on it too much, however, he felt himself being lifted higher and back in one of Ryoku's hands.

"Sorry, this might hurt, but I need you to stay out of the way. Whatever happens, stay hidden, got that?" Ryoku said, cocking his arm back.

"Wait a second, what the hell are you doi-" His breath was then snatched from his throat as Ryoku's throw sent him hurtling towards the tree line at an alarmingly fast pace.

When he was about three fifths of the way there, however, he started to slow down. By the time he finally landed, he was at the exact beginning of the tree line, and very, very sore on his side from the landing.

"OOWWWWWW!" Naruto yelled. However, his yell of pain was nothing like the roar that followed.

The only way to describe the roar was utterly and completely inhuman. It sounded like the roar of a lion, only a hundred times louder and more guttural. But even with how scary the roar was, the beast that it belonged to was a thousand times worse.

When the demon entered the field, Naruto nearly shit himself. The creature was at least twenty feet tall, and looked distinctly like a monkey, but instead of fur, it had alternating black and red scales. It had six massive, barrel-shaped arms, and each hand on each arm sported five blood red claws tipped with black that looked like they could cleave a man in two with one stroke. It had two legs that ended in hands, although the claws on the feet were much longer than the ones on the hands. But it was the face that was the scariest part.

It had no less than eight eyes, each one having red where the whites would be, and glowing yellow irises with slitted pupils, like a snake. There seemed to be no mouth, but whenever the monster roared, a gap opened up in the front of the things "face", and rows upon rows of black teeth tipped with red were shown. Naruto shuddered to think about what had made the teeth tipped in red.

The monster lumbered up to Ryoku, who didn't seem the least bit afraid of the giant brute in front of him. He just stood there with his arms folded, and looked calmly at the beast.

Then what Naruto would call for many years the most epic fight in existence began.

The monster roared and charged at Ryoku, who jumped above and over the beast, so that the two were in the opposite places from where they had started. The monster recovered fast, however, and took a swipe at Ryoku. Ryoku just caught it with one hand and, with a grunt of effort, threw the demon into the trees, carving a large swath through them. While the monster was still dazed, Ryoku sped over to the beast and punched it in the gut, which made it howl in pain.

Still not done, Ryoku jumped down from the beast, and, roaring with effort, picked the demon up and threw it back into the clearing. Ryoku sped up so he got to the clearing before the demon did, and got directly under it.

Naruto was about to cry out a warning, but what happened next froze the words in his throat. Ryoku kicked upwards, sending it into the sky. Ryoku then quickly teleported above the demon, and kicked it back into the ground, hard. The monster created a giant crater upon impact, and Ryoku decided to finish it off, as well as give Naruto a little show.

"Divine Art: Kage RakuRai!" (Shadow Lightning Bolt) Ryoku yelled, raising his hand with the tips of his fingers pointing upwards, and quickly bringing it directly downwards. Instantly, a black lightning bolt crackling with red energy shot out of the sky, and landed directly on the demon, which howled in pain again. There was a massive explosion that caused enough force to make Naruto be blown backwards into a tree, and when the dust cleared, the demon was nowhere in sight, leaving Ryoku standing in the middle of a giant crater where the field used to be.

Ryoku turned to face Naruto, who was watching all of this with his mouth hanging open. "And that, my dear friend," Ryoku said, looking serious, "Is why you should never mess with a god." And with that, Ryoku snapped his fingers, and Naruto's world went black.

* * *

Naruto woke with a start. He was breathing heavily, and felt like he had forgotten something. Something important...

Piece by piece, Naruto remembered what had happened the previous night. He remembered Ryoku and the demon, and Ryoku revealing that he was a god.

'W-Was it even real?' Naruto thought to himself. He then heard a strange noise coming from his living room. It sounded like…snoring?

Naruto picked up the aluminum baseball bat he used for whenever someone broke into his house and walked towards the noise. When he reached the couch, he lifted the baseball bat high into the air, swung it down, and…

"SONOFABITCH!" Two voices could be heard screaming.

Naruto felt like he had just struck a steel pole, while the figure who had been on the couch had rolled off of said couch and was now rolling around on the floor, holding his nose.

Ryoku sat up and glared at Naruto, whose hands were still burning. "The hell do you think you're doing?!" Ryoku demanded, looking annoyed, "Why in the hell did you swing a fucking baseball bat at my perfectly good schnoz?!" Ryoku pointed to his nose, which looked perfectly fine, albeit a little red.

Naruto was staring at Ryoku with a look that told of previously unknown amounts of disbelief. "Is your face really made of metal?" Naruto whispered.

"Yes, it is made of the rare metal of the Holy Shit If You Fall For This I Will Laugh My Ass Off ore." Ryoku whispered back.

"Really?" Naruto said, never having heard of this seemingly divine metal.

"Yes, really." Ryoku said solemnly. Finally, Ryoku couldn't hold it in any longer and busted out laughing, rolling across Naruto's floor and banging into several things, but not really seeming to mind. Suddenly he stopped, and looked slowly at a certain part of his anatomy.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked.

Ryoku looked alarmed and nervous at the same time. "N-Nothing's wrong!" Ryoku said, his voice strained, "I just need to…OW! Okay, thank the ALOE that's over." He sounded very relieved.

Naruto wanted to question more about who the hell this ALOE person was, but he had a more pressing question on his mind. "Ryoku, what the hell are you doing in my house?" Naruto asked, suddenly calm.

Ryoku was a bit unnerved by the calmness in Naruto's voice but shrugged it off. "Well, you see, I decided that since I don't have a place to stay, I'd crash with you!" He finished this with a large, childish smile.

Naruto still remained calm. "And why do I smell the wonderful scent of ramen in the air?"

Ryoku was now slightly afraid of the look in the young boy's eyes. They reminded him of Riaya's whenever he decided to break into her secret stash of gingerbread cookies…

'Oh shit.' Ryoku thought. 'Well, I'll try to play it cool, and hope he doesn't go apeshit on my ass. If he does…maybe if I look like I'm in pain it'll help him get over it faster…'

Clearing his throat, Ryoku said, "Umm, maybe because…I ate it all?" Ryoku was now astounded at the amount of killing intent that was leaking out of the boy.

"You did, did you?" Naruto said, his voice filled with steely calm. Ryoku nodded.

The following screams were heard across the village for hours. And not all of them were fake, either. Not even gods are immune to a man's greatest weakness.

Ryoku grumbled as he bought the last package of ramen at the general store where Naruto normally did all of his shopping. After thirty minutes of Naruto relentlessly kicking his prized jewels, Ryoku had agreed (In a much higher voice than normal) to restock Naruto's precious stock of ramen.

Ryoku looked at the kid next to him, who was now humming a happy tune. He sweatdropped at the difference between a Naruto with ramen and a Naruto without ramen. He preferred the one with ramen much more than the opposite.

* * *

"Well, there's the last bag of your precious ramen." Ryoku sighed, looking at his now nearly empty wallet as they walked out with the precious cargo. "I think you made me buy more than you had in your house originally, though."

"What makes you say that?" Naruto asked, oh so innocently.

Ryoku looked at Naruto sourly, not fooled for a second. "Gee, I don't know, maybe because we now have the entire store's worth of ramen, and I highly doubt you could've afforded this all without me."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess you got me there." He said, "Well, how about we split the ramen, since you're gonna be living with me for a while, and I guess even gods need to eat."

Instantly, Ryoku covered Naruto's mouth with his hand. "Don't talk about that in public!" He hissed, "I don't want that kind of information leaking out. We can, and have to, talk later, okay?" Naruto just nodded, his eyes wide.

Ryoku let go of Naruto's mouth and they started walking back to Naruto's apartment. Even Naruto could tell that the atmosphere between them was very tense, and he wondered why.

When they got back to Naruto's apartment, Ryoku instantly closed and locked the door, shut all windows, closed all blinds, and covered the walls in privacy seals. He stood back, observing his work, and nodded, sitting down on the couch and motioning for Naruto to sit beside him.

"Now, I will answer your questions. But I need to lay down some ground rules first, got it?" Ryoku said, looking at Naruto sternly. Naruto nodded quickly. "Okay, good. Rule number one, what we say here does not leave this room. The stuff you're probably going to ask about is going to be highly secretive, and I don't want people realizing that they have a resident god here. Understood?" Naruto nodded quickly.

"Number two, I reserve the right to withhold information if I have to." Ryoku continued, "This means private stuff or stuff I either can't or won't tell you about. All you need to know is that if I say that I won't tell you something, I probably have a damn good reason for it. Understood?" Again, Naruto nodded.

"Number three, I want you to understand that some things I could or would tell you, but you're too young for them. And also, I want you to prepare yourself to have the foundations of your life shaken. Got it?" Ryoku finished. Naruto nodded again.

"Good. Now, fire away." Ryoku said, waving his hand.

Naruto took a deep breath. He wanted to ask this, but didn't know if Ryoku knew the answer, or if he himself even wanted to know the answer. "Ryoku, why do the villagers hate me so much?" Naruto asked, solemn for a child his age.

Ryoku sighed deeply, and when he looked up, Naruto saw that he was troubled, but he tried to smile anyway. "Right to the difficult stuff, eh?" He said, then he grew solemn. "Okay, Naruto. Before I tell you this, I want you to promise me something."

"What is it?" Naruto asked, confused.

Ryoku adjusted his cape and said, "I want you to promise me that when you hear the answer, you won't lose your ever loving mind. The answer will shock you completely, and I give you permission to take out everything on me if you wish." He looked at Naruto, who was deep in thought.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, but was actually minutes, Naruto nodded once. "Okay, I promise." He said.

Ryoku sighed. "The reason why the villagers hate you, Naruto…is because you are the container for the Kyuubi no Kitsune, or the Nine Tailed Demon Fox."

Naruto just sat there staring at Ryoku for some confirmation that he was joking, but when Ryoku just sat there, looking sad, the emotions started to whirl around inside of him. He felt angry, sad, betrayed, enraged, and so many other emotions that he felt like he was going to explode. He needed to take his anger out on someone, needed to cause pain, anything to relieve him of this pain.

With tears streaming down his face, he jumped at Ryoku, who didn't do a thing to stop him. He punched and kicked, and surprisingly enough, it felt like regular flesh. He didn't stop for a whole ten minutes, during which Ryoku was becoming more battered and bruised by the second, but didn't do a thing to stop the boy. Finally, Naruto just broke down in tears, and cried into Ryoku's shirt.

"H-Hey, Naruto, stop that! You're getting my uniform wet!" Ryoku yelled, inwardly wincing at his feeble attempt to snap him out of it. He had never been that good with people crying, and sucked with children, so he really had no idea of what to do.

Slowly, Naruto's sobs stopped, and the tears stopped flowing and he rolled of Ryoku, onto the other part of the couch.

"So I guess they were right to hate me, huh?" Naruto said eventually, all the life in his voice gone. However, that life quickly came back when he felt a smack on his right cheek, and yelled in pain.

Ryoku roughly picked him up. "You listen to me." Ryoku said, bringing Naruto's face close to his own, his voice filled with steely calm. "If you ever say, or even think, that again, I swear to the Almighty Lord of Everything that I will incinerate every package of ramen you own, and prevent you from ever eating it again. They were never right in any of that abuse they gave you. They're all attacking you with some misguided idea that you're somehow the actual incarnation of the Kyuubi, which if they even thought about it without any bias for one second, even with the pitifully low brain power they have, they would see just how stupid that idea is. I don't want you to ever say that again, and if you ever decide to kill yourself, I'll bring you back to life, kill you again, bring you back to life again, then burn your ramen right in front of you. Got it?!" Ryoku yelled this last part.

Naruto nodded vigorously, and Ryoku dropped him back onto the couch before plopping down next to him. "Do you have any more questions, or is the little baby Naruto too busy crying to say anyth-" Ryoku was immediately stopped by Naruto's fist in his face.

For once, Ryoku was the one in pain. "Owwwww," He moaned, holding his now bruised nose. "That hurt like a biiiiitch."

Naruto noticed something. "Hey Ryoku? Why did my punch hurt you now, but before it hurt me instead?" He asked, staring at his non-bruised hand.

Ryoku had just finished healing his nose, and looked at Naruto, slightly annoyed. "Because I have a special power that allows me to change the hardness and sensitivity of my skin at will. When you punched me before, you were hitting me at my normal level, but when I made my skin as soft and sensitive as yours, you managed to hurt me. Which was my plan anyway, because you needed to see that you were causing damage, or else it would've gotten worse."

"Then why did it hurt when I swung the baseball bat at you?" Naruto asked, trying to make sense of this.

Ryoku glared at Naruto. "Because there's a huge difference between a child's fist and a freakin' fifteen pound metal baseball bat. Plus, you nailed my schnoz, and that part is always a little sensitive no matter what I do." He said, rubbing said schnoz.

Naruto glared back at Ryoku. "Well, you were asking for it!" He defended. Ryoku glared back at him, and the two stayed like that for about five minutes before Naruto started cracking up laughing.

Ryoku smirked at this. 'Well, at least he's not going down the path of emo anymore.' He said, smiling.

Once Naruto had recovered enough to speak, he decided to ask Ryoku another question. "Ryoku?" He said, slightly nervous.

"Hmmmm?" Ryoku said, motioning him to get on with it.

"Can I ask you another question?" Naruto asked.

Ryoku smirked. He had been waiting to do this for years. "Well, that was already one." He said, "But I guess you can ask some more." Inside, he was celebrating. 'Man, it feels good not to be on the receiving side of that!' He thought, enjoying the annoyance that was on Naruto's face.

"Yeah, yeah, very funny." Naruto grumbled. "Well, I have another question for you. Why are you here? I mean, what could a god have to do here?"

Ryoku winced. "Well, I'm afraid that I can't completely answer that one." He said, sighing, "I'll tell you what I can, though." He gathered his thoughts. "I was sent here along with my team to…help, let's say, with…future events, and make sure things don't go wrong. That's as much as I can say for now. Sorry."

Naruto was a little disappointed, but perked back up immediately. "Well, can you tell me about your team, then?" He asked, getting excited.

Ryoku smirked. He had known that the boy would ask about this sooner or later. "Sure thing, Naruto." He said, then began to describe his team. "We're known as the Shadow Four, and we're some of the best warriors out there. We each have our own talents, but we also have our own weaknesses. One of my teammates is named Dyn, and the only way to describe him is if insanity had a physical form, it would be him. He is obsessed with something that he calls "Buttermonkeys", and thinks that the Great Empire of Chairs has declared war on him. He's also the hand-to-hand specialist of the group. In short, he's insane and anything you sit on counts as his mortal enemy."

* * *

Up in the heavens, a boy around Ryoku's age with wild yellow hair and yellow eyes wearing underwear on his head suddenly stopped running around the halls and sneezed.

He stopped and looked around suspiciously.

"The Buttermonkeys must be stealing my flying candle!" He exclaimed, and took off towards the room where he kept his rocket made of defeated chairs.

* * *

Naruto laughed. This guy sounded interesting.

Ryoku laughed before continuing. "The next member of my team is a strange guy who we only know as M. M is…creepy, to say the least. In addition to the Shadow Four uniform, he also wears a nearly full face headwrap that only shows one of his blood red eyes, and a section of his pale ass white skin. He acts cool and calm most of the time, but if you piss him off, you can say goodbye to living." Ryoku shivered. "He's also our illusory master. You do not want to become trapped in one of his illusions, because there will be no escape. But still, that doesn't change the fact that the guy's creepy as hell."

* * *

Up in the heavens, a boy wearing a nearly full face headwrap suddenly sneezed and narrowed his eyes.

"Urge to kill Ryoku…rising…" He said, his visible eye twitching.

* * *

Naruto shivered. This guy did not sound like fun.

Ryoku shivered as well, although for completely different reasons than Naruto. "Why does it feel like someone's attempting to direct a massive amount of killing intent on me?" He wondered, then shrugged it off as him being paranoid. "Okay, to the next member of the Shadow Four!" He said, grinning brightly. "Riaya!" However, he was rudely interrupted by a loud laugh from Naruto.

"What's so funny?" Ryoku asked, annoyed.

Naruto swallowed his laughter and said, "Ryoku…and Riaya? Seriously?!" He then busted out laughing again.

Ryoku's right eye twitched as he suppressed the urge to throttle the boy right then and there. 'Must…not…kill…children…' He thought, taking deep breaths to calm himself.

"Yes…I get that a lot. But I would highly recommend that you never say that to her, lest your eardrums will blow, and that is a very painful thing, I can assure you." Ryoku said, wincing at the memory of the last time someone had said that in front of Riaya.

Finally calming down, Naruto nodded and motioned for Ryoku to continue. With a tick mark going in his temple, Ryoku obliged. "Okay, Riaya." Ryoku began, glaring at Naruto, who thankfully stayed quiet. "She is probably the most normal one out of us, although even the Almighty Lord of Everything is scared of her temper. She's been known to knock down entire buildings just out of anger. She is also the healing specialist out of us, although she's nearly on my level in terms of magic. She's even brought someone back to life before."

* * *

Up in the heavens, a tall girl with brilliant, orange, wavy hair and crimson eyes sneezed and suddenly felt like beating the crap out of Ryoku for talking too much about her.

She shrugged. 'Well, at least now I have something to look forward to.' She thought before roundhouse kicking a random pervert who had tried to grab her rather large breasts.

* * *

This piqued Naruto's interest. "Who did she bring back to life?" Naruto questioned.

Ryoku's expression softened. "Me." He said softly.

Naruto looked at Ryoku in shock. "Y-You died?!" He shouted. 'Is this guy a god?!...Wait a second, he is! Then how did he…"

"Die?" Ryoku finished Naruto's thought for him. "Well, that's a story for another day. One for when you're older, more mature, and can handle it."

"Hey, I'm mature!" Naruto protested, puffing out his cheeks.

Ryoku laughed and ruffled Naruto's hair. "Not by a long shot." He said, "Anyway, that's enough questions for now. Personally, I'm getting tired of all of this deep shit. How about I treat you to whatever you want, to make up for the Kyuubi and all of that stuff?"

At the reminder of the Kyuubi, Naruto's mood was slightly dampened, but with the prospect of free (for him) food, and his now growling stomach, he just couldn't work up enough energy to become depressed. So he stayed in his normal, happy mood. "Sure thing, Ryoku!" He said happily.

Little did Ryoku know that his money was soon going to be slowly and painfully extorted from him by way of the "Cute little kid" face.

* * *

Ryoku was amazed yet slightly fearful of the amount of bowls that was piling up in front of Naruto. The young five year old was already on his tenth bowl, and wasn't showing any sign of slowing down yet.

"Ah, Naruto?" Ryoku began nervously, "I think you've had enou-"

"Another bowl, please!" Naruto said, and Ryoku decided to just take pleasure from the time after this when the boy was sure to be backing up the plumbing.

After Naruto's twenty-third bowl and Ryoku's sixteen thousandth yen, the two started to slowly walk back towards Naruto's apartment. However, Ryoku decided to ask Naruto something that he had been sitting on all day.

"Naruto?" When Naruto turned to face him, Ryoku continued, "Look, I'm going to come right out and say it: Do you want me to train you?"

The reaction was immediate. Naruto tripped over his own feet and started spluttering. "Who-wha-ho-why?" Naruto very eloquently asked.

Ryoku looked at him strangely. "O-kaaayyy, I'm just going to try to answer those the best I can. I'm going to be the one training you, perhaps with some additional help. The reason why is because this whole time, I've been somewhat testing you. You seem like a good enough kid, and I see that you have potential. And plus, you're gonna need it, trust me."

Naruto was still in disbelief, but Ryoku took that to mean he was indecisive. "I mean, I won't force you to train under me." He said hastily, "I just thought you might want to, you know, get stronger. But if you don't want to train under me, I understa-"

"No, I want you to train me!" A now recovered Naruto said, surprising Ryoku, "That would be awesome!"

Slowly, a smile found it's way across Ryoku's face. "Well then, I hope you're ready for a life of living hell." He said, "Because this training's going to be harder than anything you've ever done before."

Naruto looked back at Ryoku with a fire in his eyes. "I can handle anything you can throw at me!" He said. Little did he know the mistake he had just made.

Ryoku chuckled. "Well, then," He said, "You might as well get some sleep now. You're gonna need it. Oh, and here's your first training assignment: You must race me back to your house." Naruto started to protest, but was cut short. "Ready, set GO!" And Ryoku took off, laughing like a madman.

Naruto looked after him with a sweatdrop. "Crazy bastard." He said, running after him.

Little did he know, his adventures were just beginning.

* * *

A/N: Well, this turned out shorter than I wanted it to be, but I hope you guys still liked it. This chapter was pretty much just expository, but next chapter more things are going to be happening, so stay tuned! Reviews are greatly appreciated, and I thank you for reading. This is Ryoku Arcanian saying, peace out!


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